This is the first post-WWII appearance of the Red Skull. According to 1960s continuity, Captain America was frozen in a block of ice prior to war’s end, and Bucky was killed. Per 1940s continuity, they both survived the war and went on to fight crime on the homefront. So something already needs reconciling well before we throw Red Skull into the mix.
The GCD credits the story to Otto Binder, Al Gabriele, and Vince Alascia.
Mostly a miscellaneous story we won’t dwell on. Three things stand out.
First, we note all clues about the identity of the Red Skull. He’s taken to using more German phrases than ever before. “Himmel”, “Donnervetter”. He refers to Captain America and Bucky as “American scum”. So perhaps this is a German villain, and not George Maxon.
Captain America and Bucky unmask him and recognize him as the “real” Red Skull they’ve fought before. This also implicitly acknowledges there may be “fake” Red Skulls out there.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America and were the driving force and primary creators behind the first 10 issues. But they left for the competition, for the company that would be DC.
That perhaps understates what happened. They learned publisher Martin Goodman had been cheating them out of royalties with shady accounting practices, and so started considering leaving the company. Goodman learned of their intentions and fired them before they could quit, losing his most successful creators in the process.
Stan Lee, now 19 years old, has since taken over the role of editing the Captain America stories, and had long been the writer on many backup features in the series, including Headline Hunter, Hurricane, Father Time, and the Imp.
This is his first credited Captain America comic story. (His first Captain America story was the prose piece in issue 3.)
His distinctive narration style is already recognizable even at a young age, filled with excitement and hyperbole. “…most dangerous adventure of their amazing, thrill-packed careers!”
We get a cool double splash page for the feature image.
Was he wearing his skull mask in prison? Why?
Red Skull apparently died at the end of most of his appearances, but he was captured at the end of issue 7, so opening with him in prison is correct. Somebody is paying attention.
We’re well into Captain America’s adventures, but it’s worth noting this still predates America’s entry into World War II.
The Red Skull’s modus operandi has all been variations on a theme so far. Originally, he had a death gaze; he killed you by looking you. (It turned out he was also injecting you with a poison while he looked at you.) Then, the death touch; he killed you by touching you. (It turned out his glove was electrified and shocked his victims to death.)
Now… the tune he plays on his flute is deadly.
This time, the explanation is simpler. Red Skull whistles Chopin’s Funeral March, but then just shoots the guy.
We’ve visited Captain America Comics #3 before. We read the text story, notable for being the first story written by a young Stan Lee.
The issue also contains three other Captain America adventures, a Tuk story, and a Hurricane story.
There’s a cool feature called “Amazing Spy Adventures” which tells a loosely accurate historical story from ancient Greece, about a secret message tattooed onto a bald head, then hidden as the hair grew. Perhaps the world’s first example of steganography. You can read more about the story here.
What interests us today though is the second appearance of the Red Skull. I’m just as confused as you are, because I also remember him dying in his first appearance. Let’s read on. Maybe they’ll explain.
Ah, so it seems that the Red Skull–unmasked as George Maxon– was immune to his own poison. That makes sense. And Captain America and Bucky did just run off leaving the body in the previous story. But then we clearly saw FBI agents at the scene standing over the body. Now, the Red Skull stands up in an empty room and runs off. Hard to reconcile these things.
When Captain America returned to the present in Avengers #4, we preceded that with a large read-through of a swath of his history from 1941-54. But we intentionally left out some pretty key issues. In particular, we neglected his battles against his nemesis, the Red Skull.
The last twoissues of Tales of Suspense have both retoldstories from Captain America Comics #1. This next one will do the same, retelling the first battle of Captain America and the Red Skull. We will then see some previously untold encounters between Captain America and the Red Skull in World War II. Eventually, the Red Skull will return in the present day to menace Captain America again.
In anticipation of all this, now seems like a good time to read through the early history of the Red Skull, starting with his introduction here in Captain America Comics #1.
We just read the modern retelling of the first two stories from Captain America Comics #1. We’ll soon read the modern retelling of the fourth story. These modern retellings will skip the third story, so we may as well read it now.
There’s also a text story, and stories featuring Tuk and Hurricane, but I’m not incentivized to read those at present.
This story is most notable for introducing us to the Sergeant overseeing Private Rogers at Camp Lehigh. The Sergeant is never impressed by the bumbling private, and will often give him a hard time. We will learn in issue 4 that his name is Sgt. Duffy.
The villain in this story is a Nazi spy named Rathcone. He plans out his strategies with pieces on a chessboard and communicates his strategies to his agents, all of whom have numbers, but some of whom also have nicknames like the Strangler. These plans involve assassinating a number of high ranking American military officials.
Featuring: Captain America Release: March 1, 1948 Cover: April 1948 10 cents 12 pages
I don’t see any credits in the issue, so I’ll refer you to the GCD for their take on attribution.
Captain America and Bucky are tracking a villain named Lavender and catch up to her during an ambergris heist.
I did not know anything about ambergris before reading this comic. Apparently, it is fecal matter occasionally released by sperm whales who have digested squid. It was used for centuries to make perfume and is extremely valuable. It has been illegal to buy or sell in America for about 50 years now, but apparently was not illegal in 1948. Hence, Lavender plans to steal some.
Featuring: Captain America Release: August 15, 1946 Cover: November 1946 10 cents 16 pages
The table of contents for the entire issue credits: Syd Shores as art associate, Stan Lee as editorial and art director, and Al Sulman as editor. Syd Shores also seems to have drawn this story.
It is clear that Syd Shores is no Jack Kirby. Kirby’s direct involvement with drawing the character only lasted about a year. He was then overseeing the creation of the stories by other creators before being drafted into the US Army. It would be more than 20 years before he returned to Captain America. Shady royalties practices on the part of publisher Martin Goodman may have helped keep him away from the company.
It is 1946. World War II is over. What does Captain America do now? Steve Rogers could hang up the stripes for good, but he chooses not to. He and Bucky continue their partnership as crimefighters.
Featuring: Captain America Release: March 17, 1941 Cover: May 1941 10 cents By: Stan Lee 2 pages
Marvel comics up through the 1960s have often included short prose stories. We haven’t covered any yet in detail, as none have been sufficiently relevant. In the 1960s, they have been short one-off tales of science fiction or fantasy.
The first two Captain America comics also each featured a text story we did not cover. We have not even covered all the Captain America comic stories from those first two issues. We are just doing a brief scan of Captain America’s history prior to his return in 1964.
Why cover this particular text piece? The author is notable.
